Documentary film recounting the wartime story of a
Kibei
couple, Itaru and Shizuko Ina and their two young children as reconstructed by their daughter Satsuki Ina. Ina and co-directors Emery Clay III and Stephen Holsapple tell the story largely through the couple's own words in the form of Shizuko's diary and letters to each other when they become separated in the course of their incarceration.

Synopsis

Satsuki Ina begins the story by recounting her discovery of her parents' documents and photographs in a box. She briefly narrates their early lives: Shizuko was born in rural Washington, but after her mother died when she was three, Shizuko was sent to Japan to be raised by her maternal grandmother. Called back to the U.S. at age 13, she returned to Japan after graduating high school to care for her grandmother. Itaru was born in San Francisco, but his mother took him to Japan where he was largely raised. He returned to the U.S. at age 13. When Shizuko is selected as a "silk girl" representing Japan at the 1939 Pan Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, a family friend introduces her to Itaru. The couple fall in love and soon decide to get married. Letters between the couple capture this moment that leads to their marriage in San Francisco in March 1941.

Shizuko's diary records her misgivings over the growing tensions between Japan and the U.S. and the run up to war, and eventually, the mass forced removal of Japanese Americans. Adding to the travails of her removal and incarceration is her pregnancy. She describes conditions first at
Tanforan Assembly Center
and then at
Topaz
, where son Kiyoshi is born in December 1942. When the
loyalty questionnaire
is circulated in early 1943, Itaru becomes a leader of efforts to protest the questionnaire, citing their rights as American citizens. This makes him a marked man, and he is eventually charged with sedition. The family is sent to
Tule Lake
in September 1943 where festering anger and recurrent bouts of poor health push them towards Japan. A second child, Satsuki, is born in Tule Lake. Later, Itaru is taken out of Tule Lake and sent to the
Bismarck, North Dakota
, internment camp, while Shizuko and the children remain at Tule Lake. Letters between the couple recount their decision to renounce their U.S. citizenship and to return to Japan. Though their resolve to return remains strong even after the war ends, reports on the terrible conditions in Japan lead them to reconsider in the interest of the two young children. But rumors that they may be deported anyway further discourage them, even as the family reunites at the
Crystal City
internment camp in April 1946.

Voice actors—Megumi for Shizuko and Lane Nishikawa for Itaru—tell much of the story in their own words. Satsuki Ina and narrator
Lawson Inada
fill in other parts of the story. In addition to family photographs and archival stills and video, key scenes are silently recreated by actors (Kimberly Ina as Shizuko and Christopher Sato Wong as Itaru).

Background and Reception

Filmmaker Satsuki Ina is a psychotherapist and emeritus professor at California State University, Sacramento. When she saw a picture of her father in the Tule Lake stockade in the Smithsonian Institution's "
A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution
" exhibition, she became determined to learn more about her family's history. After her father's passing in 1977, she found her mother's letters to him among his possessions. After her mother's passing in 2000, she found his letters to her along with her diary. Working with much of the same team that worked on her prior film,
Children of the Camps
(1999), Ina and co-directors Stephen Holsapple and Emery Clay III began production in 2003 with the aid of funding from
California Civil Liberties Public Education Program
grant and from the Center for Asian American Media. It premiered at the Crest Theatre in Sacramento in February 2005 and has subsequently screened around the country. Among other awards,
From a Silk Cocoon
won Emmy Awards in the Historical/Cultural Program category from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, San Francisco/Northern California Chapter in 2006.

Learn more in the Densho Encyclopedia, a free on-line resource covering the key concepts, people, events, and organizations that played a role in the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Chronology

Geography

Point of View

Theme

Availability

Free On Web

Teacher Guide

Learn more in the Densho Encyclopedia, a free on-line resource covering the key concepts, people, events, and organizations that played a role in the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

This material is based upon work assisted by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Useful Links

The Resource Guide to Media on the Japanese American Removal and Incarceration is a free project of Densho. Our mission is to preserve the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II before their memories are extinguished. We offer these irreplaceable firsthand accounts, coupled with historical images and teacher resources, to explore principles of democracy, and promote equal justice for all.